Chiropractic

Our body’s are meant and designed to move. That’s what allows us to breathe, to do certain activities, and allow us to get around. Ido Portal, who is Connor McGregor’s movement coach and founder of Movement Culture, says it best “We are all designed to move, but you need to learn how to do it well because it is such a big part in your life. Moving well will affect our quality of life.”

My take aways from his quote are that we all need to get off our butts and get moving. Do physical activities that you enjoy doing. It’s hard enough that most people spend most our days sitting and working. In the process of moving, it is crucial to be aware of how your body is moving and working. If you are not moving well, that can be a sign of your body not working well which can result in pain or a reduction in one’s quality of life. If you’re not moving and getting around like you feel you should, what are you doing about it?

Have you had your nervous system checked by a chiropractor? Have you had your spine and hips checked out for areas where the bones in your spine are stuck, irritating the nerves that allow your muscles, tendons, and ligaments to work properly? Chiropractic care is an excellent way to get the body working better and moving better. Chiropractic and movement go hand in hand. And you do not need to see the chiropractor because you are in pain, but to get your body moving right. When you are moving well and your body is working well, that means your body is functioning optimally. Who doesn’t want their bodies working at 100 percent?

Want to learn more about Ido Portal’s Movement Culture? Check it out here.

What do Aaron Rodgers, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Ladainian Tomlinson, Evander Holyfield, Lance Armstrong, and even Arnold Schwarzenegger all have in common other than being among the top athletes in the sport? They are all chiropractic patients. All athletes can benefit from chiropractic care. Chiropractors and athletes have a very unique relationship. The goal of the chiropractor is to restore proper nerve supply to the body which will result in improved biomechanics, function, mobility and ultimately optimal function. What athlete does not want to function and move at their very best? Most professional teams have their own chiropractor, understanding the enormous benefits of having a chiropractor part of their athletic training staff. Take the NFL’s New England Patriots for example, Dr. Michael Miller has helped a number of Patriots players for 24 years now. He is present during mini-camps, training camp, preseason games, regular-season games (both home and away), and postseason games. He sees players before, during and after games either in the locker room or on the field so that players remained active. Some players come in due to a specific ailment while other players understand that being in proper alignment will help their performance on the field/court.

You don’t have to be a professional athlete to see a chiropractor. Whether you are a crossfit athlete, runner, martial artist, weight lifter, rock climber, cyclist, etc… all athletes can benefit from chiropractic care. You also don’t have to be hurt to see a chiropractor. Most athletes visit their chiropractors because of injuries, but a number of athletes are going in for preventative care and to get an edge over their competition. Athletes also want to make sure things are functioning properly to prevent future injuries. If you are not moving well, your body will compensate and over time can lead to injuries. Often times people who come in for chronic knee or foot issues also have issues going on in their hips or back. The human body is that intelligent and works as a unit. Think cause and effect.

Younger athletes can also benefit from chiropractic as well. Looking back, I know I would have benefited from seeing a chiropractor. High school wrestling like all other sports is tough on your body. Even if I saw a chiropractor once and got adjusted, I am positive that would have helped me recover faster, move better and give me more confidence knowing that my body is functioning close to 100 percent. Stress on one’s nervous system (subluxations) may or may not lead to symptoms right away but will lead to issues later in life if not addressed. Football collisions, sprained ankles, any missteps, previous injuries, etc can all lead to subluxations which in turn will lead to altered biomechanics and function. Our young athletes also deserve to be evaluated for nervous system dysfunction before it becomes an even bigger problem.

Morale of the story here, get your nervous system checked by a chiropractor. Athletes can benefit from chiropractic care, even if they are not in pain.

With more and more people using electronic devices such as computers, tablets, and smart phones; carpal tunnel like symptoms are becoming more prevalent. WebMD describes carpal tunnel syndrome as numbness, tingling, weakness and other problems in your hand because of pressure on the median nerve. The median nerve controls movement and feeling into the first three digits of your hand (thumb, index finger, and middle finger). This nerve runs from the forearm through the carpal tunnel to control part of the hand. Many people ask if chiropractic care can help with carpal tunnel and the answer is absolutely. The big question is whether or not the symptoms that you are experiencing are truly due carpal tunnel syndrome or if your symptoms are due to something else.

Often times people are quick to associate any hand or wrist issues with carpal tunnel syndrome, even if the symptoms are not into the first three digits of their hand. As a result many people blindly follow through with carpal tunnel surgery and unfortunately this doesn’t always help alleviate their symptoms. Unfortunately this is a huge problem with people trying to self diagnosis them self through the internet (aka cyberchondria), they don’t have the clinical skill set or experience to determine the root cause of their issues. That is a topic for another discussion. When assessing people for carpal tunnel syndrome, does your health care practitioner evaluate your neck, shoulders, elbow and wrist? Why? Did you know that the nerves that control your hand come from your neck, run through your shoulders, pass the elbow and innervate your hand. Those hand or wrist challenges could be coming from an impingement in those areas. Many people have double crush syndrome, which is an impingement or subluxation (misaligned joint, which can have a negative affect on the body) in the neck and entrapment of a peripheral nerve (median, radial, & ulnar nerves). Carpal tunnel like symptoms are often times not just due to misaligned bones in the carpal tunnel but can also have cervical (neck) involvement as well. The only way to determine if you have this is to visit your healthcare provider and/or chiropractor.

How can chiropractic care help me out with my carpal tunnel or carpal tunnel like symptoms? First an evaluation needs to be done to determine where the underlying cause of your symptoms are. If those symptoms are a result of subluxations in your spine or extremities causing nerve dysfunction, a chiropractor can absolutely help with carpal tunnel and carpal tunnel like symptoms. Chiropractors are trained in adjusting not just the spine but extremities as well.

Do you or someone you know experience numbness and tingling into your hands? Do the symptoms occur even if you are not sleeping on your arms/hand? If you answered yes to the previous question, next ask yourself what are you doing to correct this problem?

Do you or someone you know work 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, 52 weeks out the year in front a computer? Do you or someone you know use their cell phone for hours checking emails, text messages, browsing the web or playing games? Our body’s were not designed to be in these sedentary positions for extended periods of time. As a result of our modern technological environment, our heads tend to translate forward in what is known as forward head posture. Forward head posture is becoming more and more of an epidemic in today’s society due to the increased use of cell phones and computers. You may not even realize it, but the effects of bad posture can be very detrimental to your health and well-being.

If you didn’t already know, our heads weigh close to 8-12 pounds. For every inch our head moves forward, the weight of our heads on the spine can increase by an additional ten pounds. Texting especially leads to excessive downward posture or rounding of the neck and upper back which has been shown to cause accelerated spinal aging and premature degenerative arthritis of the spine. A 2005 Spine Journal article by Dr. Steven Glassman further illustrates the negative effects of forward head posture. By evaluating 752 subjects and measuring the base of one’s neck in relation to their pelvis, he and his staff of medical doctors found that “all measures of health status showed significantly poorer score as posture deviations increased (increased forward head posture).” Minor forward head posture was found to negatively affect breathing, heart rate, increase pain/disability, and all health markers that were measured worsened as the posture deviations increased. Additionally where your head goes, so does the rest of your spine. Forward head posture can eventually lead to other aches and pains such as general back pain, sciatic pain, carpal tunnel like symptoms, headaches, fatigue and much more.

How do you know if you have bad posture? Looking at a side view of an individual, do their ears line up with their shoulders? Do their shoulders roll forward? Do they slouch their backs? In a front to back view, are their shoulders and hips even from the left and right side? All of these are little cues to see if one has correct posture. If your posture is bad and you have a number of aches/pains, either something needs to change or something needs to be corrected.

What can you do to counteract the effects of bad posture? First off, being aware of your ergonomics and posture. Make sure that your computer screen is at eye level and make sure that you are not always looking down when you text/use your cell phone. Bring your cell phone close to eye level so that your head is still looking forward instead of down towards the floor. Next make sure you see a chiropractor who specializes in corrective care, someone who looks at your overall posture. The goal for care is spinal health and to make sure one’s nervous system is functioning optimally so that the body can heal and adapt to everyday stresses. Correcting one’s posture is not as simple as standing/sitting up straight, spinal health is a crucial part of it. When was the last time you had your spine evaluated by a chiropractor? Do not wait until you have long list of symptoms that need to be addressed.

Did you know that chiropractic adjustments are five times more effective at reducing pain compared to pain medication and three times more effective than acupuncture according to the Spine Journal (2003). In 2014 a study was done to look at the safety and effectiveness of Tylenol for low back pain. During this time, many people in the medical field strongly recommended using Tylenol for back pain for years. Recently a PubMed study published in “The Lancet” clearly shows Tylenol to be no more effective than a sugar pill, yet is still prescribed, however, with GI bleeding and other unwanted symptoms as side effects of the drug. Think about this..the drugs used in the study were Celebrex and Vioxx. Both proven less effective in reducing pain than Chiropractic. However, those 2 drugs alone net more money each year than the entire Chiropractic profession combined.If you didn’t know chiropractic is more effective than pain pills, then now you know!

Use of prescription narcotic painkillers, opioids, has quintupled recently and that more than 200 million prescriptions were issued to patients in 2009 in the US,” according to this article. Even more alarming is the link between long term use of these opioids and the risk of long term depression. The longer the painkillers were used and the greater the dosage, the higher the risk of developing depression. Opioids like morphine, codeine, oxycodone, hydrocodone and fentanyl are one of the most commonly used and abused drug classes due to their addictive properties. With chronic pain affecting more than 100 million people in the United States, more people are turning to use of painkillers. Both over the counter pain killers and prescription pain killers should your last resort instead of the go-to option.

Chiropractic is based on the philosophy and science that the body has an innate wisdom which will allow itself to heal on its own. Because of this fact, you should trust that the body has millions of years of evolution working on its side vs pain pills where new research is proving how ineffective they are (compared to chiropractic care a form of care that allows the body to do the healing). Remember, the goal of chiropractic is not to make you feel instantaneously better, rather to allow for an uninterrupted nervous system which will lead to better healing and greater adaptability to stress. With that said, you do not need to be in pain to see a chiropractor.

I see a wide variety of patients in my practice. Men, women, young, old. But many people who find themselves in my office are there because they’re in pain. But chiropractic isn’t just about treating pain, so I often get asked the following question: “Why do kids need chiropractic care? They aren’t in pain.”

The question I should ask them is, “why not? Chiropractic is not about pain, rather it is about the optimal expression of life.” What does that mean? A body that functions at it’s very best (ability to heal better, sleep better, breath better, digest better, etc..). Remember the human body is designed to be healthy and adaptable. However sometimes there is just too much stress that can affect our ability to be healthy and adaptable to our environment. Often times this overwhelming stress affects our spine and more importantly will affect our central nervous system (brain and spinal cord), which is the master control system in the body. We want your nerve supply to be close to 100% and with no interference to allow for optimal expression of life. So do kids need chiropractic? The answer is yes: they can benefit in many ways.

What does this mean for kids?

Issues such as colic, chronic ear infections, headaches, digestive issues, bed wetting, etc… can result from stress on one’s nervous system. Misalignments in the spine (aka vertebral subluxations) will have a negative effect on a child’s overall health and well being. The nerve system controls and coordinates the function of all the systems in the body: circulatory, respiratory, digestive, hormonal, eliminative and immune system. Any aspect of health may be impaired by nerve interference. Another way to look at our bodies is to relate it to a car, just because you have a brand new car does not mean that it does not need some level of check ups and maintenance. That is why it is important for kids to see a chiropractor as well. It is about prevention and optimal function. Chiropractic care for pediatrics is extremely gentle, safe and effective. Did you know many spinal issues people have as an adult begin as early as birth? Can you imagine how your life would be if your parents had taken you to the chiropractor as a child?

10 reasons parents take their children to see a chiropractor:

1) To encourage good neural plasticity (brain and nerve development).
2) To support “first-class” nerve communication throughout the body to promoting health and well being.
3) To help strengthen their child’s immunity – encouraging fewer colds, ear-aches and general illness.
4) To help resolve breastfeeding issues and colic.
5) To reduce the detrimental impact our modern world has on our children’s health.
6) Encourages children to thrive by supporting digestive strength.
7) To diminish nerve interference which may impact their child’s capacity to learn and concentrate.
8) To promote body balance – helping to resolve poor posture, asthma, allergies and bed-wetting..
9) To help kids stay fun and light hearted.
10) To help kids stay in tip-top shape.

What is the sacroiliac joint (SI jt)?

The sacroiliac joint (SI joint) is the area in your pelvis where the sacrum (the bone directly under your spine) and iliac bones come together. The primary role of the SI jts are to act as shock absorbers, especially to prevent further impact on your spine during walking or running. This is accomplished through nutation and counter nutation of the sacrum. Nutation– occurs as the sacrum moves anteriorly and inferiorly while the coccyx (tailbone) moves posteriorly relative to the ilium. Counternutation– occurs as the sacrum moves posteriorly and superiorly while the coccyx moves anteriorly relative to the ilium. These coupled movements are what allows shock absorption to occur. Additionally, the SI joint is an extremely stable joint held together by strong ligaments and surrounded by a number of strong muscles such as the erector spinae, psoas, quadratus lumborum, piriformis, abdominal obliques, gluteal muscles, and hamstrings. Any dysfunction occurring at the si joint can cause issues to occur in these muscle groups.

Despite how stable the SI joints are, this region is definitely susceptible to being thrown out of alignment. As a matter of fact, sacroiliac subluxations (misaligned areas in the spine or hips that are hypomobile/restricted and have a negative affect on one’s nervous system) are quite common. Falls, missteps, traumas and accidents are a few things that can affect the SI region. Old injuries can also result in your body compensating which can later result in your SI joint being misaligned. For instance, an ankle sprain may cause you to compensate your gait or posture in order to protect that ankle from further injury. As a result, your sacroiliac joint can be affected which can lead to other challenges.

How do you know if you have sacroiliac issues?

Here are a few symptoms and causes of SI subluxations:

Low-back pain, typically at the belt line, and pain radiating into the buttock or thigh.

Most often, SI subluxations are caused by trauma. For example, rotation of the joint when lifting or participating in some vigorous activity may cause tears in small ligaments surrounding the joint, resulting in pain and dysfunction.

Difficulty walking or standing is often an indicator of SI joint issues.

The risk of SI subluxations may also increase with true and apparent leg-length inequality, abnormalities in gait and prolonged exercise.

Pregnant women may suffer from SJD because of hormone-induced relaxation of the pelvic ligaments during the third trimester, weight gain and increased curvature of the lumbar spine.

How to address pain related to sacroiliac subluxations?

Retraining incorrect movement patterns via exercise, stretching and mobilization (in regards to this article mobilization= myofascial release and band work). My suggestion would be to check out these guys. I work out at Crossfit Humanity in San Diego and fully trust them to do a good job. Proper form during exercise is crucial in preventing future injuries. However that is only part of the solution. It’s as if you have a cavity and to address it all you do is continue to floss and brush your teeth. Addressing the alignment in the pelvis is even more crucial than simple rehabilitation. Both of which are great things to do, however it doesn’t fix the underlying cause. Chiropractors are trained in detecting these misalignments and correcting them.

If this is something that you or someone you know suffers from, don’t hesitate to get it evaluated! Call (619) 758-5820 for an appointment or leave me a comment.

Do you think pain (i.e numbness, tingling, stiffness, etc..) is a good thing? There is a common misconception that all pain is a bad (just to clarify I am not referring to “no pain, no gain”).

What is Pain?

According to John Hopkin’s Medical School, “Pain is an uncomfortable feeling that tells you something may be wrong. It can be steady, throbbing, stabbing, aching, pinching, or described in many other ways. Sometimes, it’s just a nuisance, like a mild headache. Other times it can be debilitating.” With that said, these symptoms are your body’s way of communicating with you to tell you something is going on. Essentially, these symptoms are actually a good thing because they are telling you that something is wrong.

Pain can be classified in two categories: acute and chronic. Acute pain are symptoms that arise recently or within the past few days. Typically acute pain is a signal that you are injured or did something to yourself that wasn’t right. Examples of this include: a sprained ankle, a paper cut or a burn. This type of pain is an indication that you need to stop, slow down or change what you are doing. Chronic pain are symptoms that have been present for some time and have been going, This type of type of pain can range from mild to severe. This type of pain has been present for some time but have been left unchecked for sometime. Examples of chronic pain include: numbness/tingling, chronic lower back discomfort, headaches and more. Just like acute pain, chronic pain is also an indication that you need to stop, slow down, change what you are doing but also that you need to correct the source of the pain. Chronic pain is an indication that their is a failure in your body to adapt to your everyday stresses in life.

Addressing the source means finding out what is the cause of your symptoms — not just treating the symptoms. Pharmaceutical companies are making millions if not billions of dollars on drugs that mask/hide the symptoms yet fail to address the actual cause of the pain.

This is where chiropractors come in. Chiropractors are not pain doctors! Chiropractors do not treat your symptoms. Chiropractors address the cause of one’s symptoms, which are likely due to vertebral subluxations that result in the breakdown in one’s body to adapt and heal properly. The goal of chiropractic care is to allow the body to function closer to 100%. As a result of that, the reduction in one’s symptoms are a byproduct of getting to body to function better.

Is your body functioning close to 100%? Do you have chronic aches and pains that are not going away? When was the last time you visited a chiropractor?

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About Dr. Palmes

Dr. Gerald Palmes is a San Diego chiropractor whose mission and goal is to help and enhance people’s lives through chiropractic care as well as make a positive impact on his community.

Dr. Palmes enjoys working with people from all walks of life. He specializes in pregnancy, pediatric care, as well as working with athletes. He enjoys getting to know his patients and learning what their goals are, in order to help achieve them. He strives to lead a healthy and active life, and hopes he can help others fulfill a healthy balance life.

About Dr. Palmes

As a San Diego Chiropractor, Dr. Palmes is committed to helping you achieve better health and an improved quality of life. Optimal function is dependent on a properly working nervous system. This is where chiropractic comes in.